On Saturday, as Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson was chauffeured away in a luxury sedan from a Milwaukee “Rally for Roe,” which she attended with Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, I wondered if Democrats are betting too much on abortion. The rally, held at a high school in a working-class, predominantly African-American neighborhood, was sparsely attended: A month out from Election Day, the crowd filled up less than half of a gymnasium. While the issue of abortion energizes both Democratic donors and activists, crime and inflation are obviously much more important for voters in that neighborhood and Milwaukee in general.
At the rally, two acute problems for Barnes became apparent. The first is that his own position on abortion is so extreme that it will make it difficult for Barnes to make any gains against Johnson. When I asked Barnes if abortion should be legal when a baby is healthy and capable of surviving outside the womb — and the pregnancy doesn’t pose a risk to the mother’s physical health — he replied: “It all goes back to this decision being made between a woman and her doctor. That’s as simple as it gets.” As I noted in my write-up from the campaign trail: “For most voters, abortion after viability is indeed as simple as it gets: The overwhelming majority say it should be illegal. Viability (mostly a function of lung development) occurs as early as 21 to 22 weeks of pregnancy, and a 2013 study reported that data suggest abortions between weeks 20 and 28 of pregnancy are not performed for ‘reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.’”
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